Plan safe, plan healthy: Guidelines for developing national programmes on occupational safety and health

This guide will serve as a useful source of information for those involved in preparing national programmes on occupational safety and health (OSH) and, consequently, will deliver an improvement in working conditions and a reduction in work-related accidents and diseases.

This guide sets out a framework for the development of national programmes on OSH. It provides governments, employers and workers with step-by-step assistance to develop a national programme on OSH. It aims to promote concerted action on OSH issues, based on the commitment of all the actors involved. For the public, it is a way of monitoring progress.

The guide is designed to:
• ensure a common understanding, among national and international partners, of the processes needed to support countries in preparing national programmes on OSH;
• suggest a practical, step-by-step approach to developing national programmes, through a concerted process that draws on and fosters broadly based national ownership;
• provide guidance to countries – particularly government officials and the representatives of employers’ and workers’ organizations and other relevant stakeholders – so that they can work together to prepare a balanced, comprehensive national programme on OSH; and
• provide the ILO and other international agencies with a toolkit for a common substantive approach to the improvement of OSH.

This guide is based on the policy cycle approach – that is, analysing the situation and identifying the main problems, generating policy options, and planning for implementation.

The guide is divided into two main sections:
Part I proposes a step-by-step approach for developing a national programme. It identifies those who should be involved, and their respective roles.
Part II deals with the programme’s content: the development of a national policy on OSH; the composition of the national profile on OSH; and the subsequent steps of strategic planning, implementation, monitoring and review of the national programme on OSH.

This guide was produced under the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) project “Linking safety and health at work to sustainable economic development: From theory and platitudes to conviction and action” (2009–2012).